(NaturalNews) A new analysis of fish living in the Delaware, Ohio and Susquehanna rivers of Pennsylvania has revealed a shocking truth about the chemicals being sprayed on our food and given to us as "medicine" (i.e. pharmaceutical drugs). According to a paper published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, drugs and pesticides are almost universally transforming otherwise male fish into egg-carrying, "intersex" mutant fish that are both male and female.

For the research, samples of both smallmouth and largemouth bass were collected from 16 sites at three major drainage areas along the three rivers. These samples were tested for biomarkers of estrogenic and anti-androgenic exposures, including from crop chemicals, birth control drugs and other contaminants that are often flushed into waterways as waste. Fish samples were also taken both upstream and downstream from wastewater treatment plants for comparison.

When the samples were analyzed, researchers found that nearly every single male smallmouth bass had female eggs growing in its testes. Among all the sites analyzed, between 82 and 100 percent of the male smallmouth bass had this sex anomaly, while about one-quarter of all male largemouth bass had the same dysfunction in their testes.

Crop chemicals are a major cause of hormone disruption, turning men into women

Based on the locations of the various testing sites, the team determined that those areas closest to agricultural runoff were most affected in terms of sexual abnormalities. In other words, male fish exposed to the highest concentrations of residue from Roundup (glyphosate) and other herbicides were the most likely to have gender problems.

"We keep seeing... a correlation with the percent of agriculture in the watershed where we conduct a study," admitted Vicki Blazer, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologist who worked on the study.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had previously determined that male fish were being harmed by crop chemicals after testing samples collected from the Potomac River. Based on that research, the agency announced that intersex fish are disturbingly common in rivers affected by agricultural chemicals, and that the problem extends across multiple other states, affecting even the Colorado and Mississippi rivers out west.

"Estrogens are known to enter the aquatic environment through runoff or leachate from application of manure from animal feeding operations, directly from grazing animals adjacent or in stream/rivers, and application of human biosolids to agricultural field[s]," wrote the authors.

War on males being waged with crop chemicals

As we previously reported, most municipal water supplies are incapable of filtering out birth control pills and other drug residues with known estrogenic properties. Combined with the presence of herbicide residues on conventional produce and in conventional meat, this highly toxic, highly estrogenic onslaught is destroying masculine biology.

While this latest study focused primarily on fish, the implications of its findings apply to humans, according to Blazer. Not only are males threatened by estrogen-mimicking drug chemicals, but they also face a constant onslaught of gender-bending influences from chemical residues left behind on conventionally raised meat and produce.

These fish are "an indicator that something else is really wrong," stated Blazer to The Washington Post. "What are these things doing to the natural environment? If we find these things in wild organisms, there's a good chance they're also affecting people."

Related research published in the journal Marine Environmental Research back in 2006 found that male cod fish off the coast of Norway are succumbing to feminization through the food chain, even if they aren't being exposed to estrogenic compounds directly. Humans face a similar threat when they drink contaminated tap water, for instance, or consume fish containing estrogenic compounds.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://link.springer.com

http://www.sciencedirect.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com